Stuck In Our Head: "Cosmogony (El Guincho Remix" - Björk

Lying in bed after a 'raucous' night out wide awake until 8am, listening to this exquisite audio frieze of a remix literally... on loop. While the original isn't too far from perfection in it's own way, this is an excellent example of tearing a song to shreds and breaking down it's components before stitching them back together to form a soul-inflating composition of joy. The Biophilia Remix series is, as most remix series are, hit and miss but this is a true highlight. Enjoy with beefy headphones.

Stuck in Our Head: "My Old Piano" - Diana Ross

Last night we went to a shimmering, spectacular night in Manchester by the name of Drunk at Vogue: probably the closest thing you'll find in the north of England to the phantasmagoric discos of late 70s/early 80s Manhattan. When this song dropped, the multi-coloured tropical storm we were in the middle of underneath a glitter ball heightened in all possible intensities and we were flooded with the magic of the dance floor that youth and 'going out' is all in the name of. We were aware of this song in the kind of peripheral 'heard it on Radio 2 when I was 14 on the M6' way so we could sing along, but it felt like we were hearing it for the first time. Absolutely joyous, and just another rhinestone in the flaw-free crown of the Nile Rodgers/Bernard Edwards production team. Oh, and... Diana.

Stuck In Our Head: Bumper Edition

While we've been spending approximately 85% of our listening time in the company of MDNA, we've encountered the odd song here and there which has forced it's way into our crowded brains.




The amazing Trash-o-Rama played an incredible remix of Lana Del Ray's "Blue Jeans" at the last Bollox, produced by the also amazing Club Clique guys - do you feel the Manchester love? - and it's not left us alone since. We still haven't made up our minds totally on Llama but we're obsessed with her vocals on the "I will love you til the end of time" line. This morning we discovered another Clique remix, this time of Saint Etienne's glorious new track "Tonight". Ramping up the melancholy euphoria we're so obsessed with a few more notches, we can see ourselves having a 'moment' if we hear it on the floor.




Two more glorious remixes we were introduced to through Trash are the Hudson Mohawke re-fixes of our favourite ever Janet track "The Pleasure Principle" and Tweet's "Oops! (Oh My)". Darker, sexier, pulsating slices of dance floor magic. Both have been floating around for months (maybe years?), but we're were clearly in the dark for too long. Obsessed...


...which conveniently leads us into our thoughts on HudMo's own EP. We imagine his profile will explode at some point over the next twelve months, as his blend of hetero-friendly club beats with an incredibly gay musical sensibility and awareness of homo club culture seems to rock everybody's boat. "All Your Love" sparkles and shimmers, leaving the listener breathless with ecstasy.




Finally, two tracks we encountered sitting on our rooftop in the recent burst of sunshine which flooded Manchester with unnecessary skin exposure (and even more unnecessary skin damage). We've never delved into Angie Stone's discography despite being enamoured with many of her contemporaries (holla at me Jill and Erykah), but we found ourselves enraptured with her 2001 "I Wish I Didn't Miss You Anymore" as dusk fell and the positively electrifying undercurrent of the piano caused a 'moment'. A magical sample and a perfect combination of chords. Next, Frank Ocean's "Swim Good" has been floating around since August last year but it seemed to take hearing it in the sunshine for it to 'click'. We're seeing him at the Manchester Academy tonight with that douche Tyler the Creator, so we'll be sure to report back along with our reviews of Kylie's two night residency in the very same venue.

See you Tuesday.

Stuck In Our Head: "Lazy Calm" - Cocteau Twins

In the middling years of our teenage period - maybe about 14 or 15? - one of the first musical areas we really began to explore was that specific brand of Ibizan 'chill out' music. Haunting pop melodies spread out over beats and strings accompanying scenes in our head we could only dream of re-enacting in person. It wasn't half painful to love music made for a lifestyle that - at that age - we could never achieve, and now that we're old enough is from a period well and truly gone. Fast forward to the beginning of this year, and one of the true gems to stick out from our obsesh with the back catologue of a certain Cocteau Twins is a track called "Lazy Calm". The influence it must have had on the forthcoming chill out phenomenon is unmistakeable - ethereal, blissful, dreamlike. Cliched, all been said before but unfortunately the English lexicon doesn't stretch far enough to provide suitable adjectives for this music. The wailing call to prayer horn, emotion-laden piano notes and soothing shrill vocals are motifs used time and time again throughout the 90s in the influential Cafe del Mar and Hotel Costes compilation series'. Absolute chest-crushing euphoria.

See also
"The Thinner the Air" - Cocteau Twins

Stuck In Our Head: "Comeback Kid" - Sleigh Bells

This is quite jolly and strange, isn't it?

Stuck in Our Head: "Rush Hour" - Jane Wiedlin

Just fucking watch it.

Stuck In Our Head: "A Little Respect" - Erasure

It's been an unusual week to say the least, but if we had to give you one song which should be representative of the events and emotions involved, it has to be Erasure's "A Little Respect". At the beginning of the week, we had little to no idea who exactly Erasure were - the closest we came to forming an opinion was that of a Pet Shop Boys Lite. On Wednesday we snagged tickets to their gig at the Manchester Apollo to review it for a student newspaper, mainly to see what all the fuss was about. We left as Erasure fans. Seriously. If you don't think you'll have heard the song above, all it will take is to get the chorus and you'll realise how big it is in your musical subconscious - everyone knows this song and everyone went wild for it at the gig.

The more we've listened to it, the more we've realised how perfect a pop song is. Everything about it is so precisely measured and proportioned - the song length, the verse to bride to chorus ratio, the emotion-punching chords, the stadium-sing-a-long lyrics, the euphoric yet slightly tragic mood... it's an incredible example of fist-pumping, groin-throbbing pop music and we're so grateful it came into our lives. On Friday night we DJed at a proper club for the very first time and we're happy to say it went fabulously, but one of the tallest peaks came as a result of this song. The music was ear-drum-puncturingly loud but the roar of the crowd in the chorus was unignorable. Thank you Erasure for this week, it wouldn't have been the same without you.

PS We're not allowed to post the gig review for said newspaper until they publish it first... coming soon!

Stuck In Our Head: "Spiralling" - Keane

Yes, it's Keane. No, we've never discussed Keane on here before and we don't intend to ever again. Yes, this is a fucking incredible song. SORRY.

Stuck In Our Head: "Paper Forest (In the Afterglow of Rapture)" - Emmy The Great

We saw Emmy The Great live before we heard her music and we weren't overly impressed. She was so shy and unassuming that we felt we might as well turn around and stare at the back of the tent we were in, and just listen. The music was beyond lovely but we weren't sold. Fortunately we are massive fans of her on record and her second album, Virtue (out now, do buy it), is truly swoony and brilliant. A mixture of mythology, religious iconography and palaeontology (it opens with a song called "Dinosaur Sex"), the album is a folky, restless, charming thing. It's funny and self-aware but also deceptively deep. Not 'deep' in the cringe-inducing 'meaningful' sense of the word, but the more literal one. It literally feels, despite its sparse and simple arrangements, quite spacey and dark, like a big, still, musty forest.

The song above is one of its many highlights and has a gorgeous chorus that appears out of nowhere. Enjoy.

Stuck In Our Head: "Never Will Be Mine" - Rye Rye (feat. Robyn)

We forgot to post about this, mostly because we were so hypnotised by the first outfit you see Robyn wearing, that we erased it from memory in the hopes that the glory of the dress wouldn't wipe our brains with its brilliance.

That's total bullshit, we're just lazy. But this is fun and diverting and Rye Rye is cute and has a lovely listenable and punchy flow and we'd probably sing the praises of a song made of cow farts as long as Robyn had released it under her name, so yeah. Stuck in our head, too.

Stuck In Our Head: "Lay It On Me" - Kelly Rowland (feat. Big Sean)

Is Kelly Rowland about to be super successful in a way that her stans could only have dreamt of for years and years? This sounds like it could be both a hit in the US and Europe. It's also a major earworm, meaning that despite its distinctly generic flavour, we have been able to sing NOTHING ELSE over the past couple of days. Try and NOT get it stuck in your head. It is imposs.

Stuck In Our Head: "Get Together (Monsieur Adi Remix)" - Madonna

A wonderful take on one of our favourite Madonna songs ever by one of our favourite remixers. Monsieur Adi possesses the talent to lift a song up and push it through the clouds, filling it with soaring soundscapes and heartbreaking melancholy. Something the original song had in spades, but the remix takes a different route. Why isn't he producing her next album?

(Also, a not of apols. Both of us have been extremely busy here at S&N for the past couple of weeks. Exams, essays, performances, you know, the usual. Anyway it will all be over after this weekend and we can return to being a 'proper blog' with 'regular updates'. Soz for the turbulence!)

Stuck In Our Head: "Houdini" - Kate Bush

With a kiss, I pass the key
And feel your tongue, teasing and receiving

...or, "Having a Kate Bush moment #6285". We've had her entire discography in our iTunes since early 2008, yet only in the past eighteen months or so have we fostered such a ferverous obsession with the Bush. Again, we honestly could write thousands and thousands of words on why we love Kate Bush, on all the nuances and aspects and facets and remarkable things she does, but right now we're going to focus on the distilled, perfect nature of "Houdini", taken from 1982's The Dreaming (the album artwork actually depicts the lyrics of the song).

We've had a lovely day. It's been one of those days that you wish for in the deepest, darkest depths of January; all-day sunshine following the full glorious spectrum of a blazing late-morning to a glowing early-evening respite, biking and walking and eating and drinking, wandering around a beautiful patch of nature in the middle of the city... just amazing. "Houdini" was the first thing that appeared on iTunes shuffle when we jumped on the bed after a full day out, and there was something about the dregs of the day's euphoria swirling around in the bucket of Bushy wonder that made us zone out a little bit. The chorus of the song with its mesmerising bells and chimes is - this is the only suitable adjective we can find - magical. It just washes over you and makes you forget everything else you are doing. Ah. Absolutely wonderful.

Stuck In Our Head: "Landslide" - Fleetwood Mac

Well I've been afraid of changing,
'Cause I've built my life around you
But time makes you bolder,
And children get older
Well I'm getting older too

There is a time and a place for an extended piece of prose on how long we've loved, why we love and how amazing Fleetwood Mac are, however at this current time when we have an essay abstract to devise, two essays to plan and two further essays to crack on and start writing, it wouldn't seem appropriate. As much as we're itching to do so. It will arrive another time.

For now, we would like you to very briefly pause whatever you are doing and/or listening to (it's a short song), put some headphones in and press play on the video above. What you're about to listen to is a song written by Stevie Nicks in 1975 just before Fleetwood Mac hurtled towards the stratospheres of success, in which she contemplates whether to continue down this inevitable path with the band she had just joined or to leave and settle down for a life of domesticity. A theme which recurs in her song-writing (see "Storms") yet this song in particular just seems to grab us by the jugular and spin us around in a frenzy of emotion. Is it the chords? The lilting, tragedy-laden melody? The painful and somehow universally-accessible message in the lyrics? There must be a science behind it all.

So tempted to jack this essay in and write eight thousand words on why Stevie Nicks is so brilliant. Just listen.

(PS the video above is of a 2002 performance with the Dixie Chicks - don't laugh - and just so happened to occur as the storm was building over the controversy with their comments on George Bush - fierce - but the reason we picked it was because despite being performed in an enormous arena, the power of the song seems amplified despite being played with a mere three guitars. Also, the screams of adoration for Nicks and the song say more about the reverence people hold for this incredible woman than anything we can write.)

Stuck In Our Head: "Rocking Chair" - Cyndi Lauper

The other day we booked tickets to see Cyndi Lauper in June. This is very exciting news, as we have always been fond of La Laupz. We're Madonna stans thru 'n' thru but we've never used this as an excuse to not like Cynds. Maybe it's because their rivalry is very much stuck in the Eighties, and for a whole host of reasons it pretty much ended post-True Blue when one lady's star shone a whole lot stronger than the others (sad face) and there was no point in gleefully keeping up the pretence that they were equals. Babes, if you're reading, this is in no way a backhanded insult to you! We love you! We just bought tickets to see you, and are writing this post about you! But yeah...

Cyndi Lauper is cracking. Every single music fan on the planet knows her holy trinity of adult contemporary classics; "Time After Time", "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and "True Colors". We would use the word timeless, but in actual fact they are very much rooted in and synonymous with the Eighties - not that in any imaginable way this is an insult. Unfortunately, while she has industriously been producing new music ever since, nothing has really come anywhere near as a close as those three to entering the public consciousness. Possibly her strongest effort yet, however, was 2008's Bring Ya to the Brink. Nearly every track on the album is produced by a different dance outfit, and more importantly only the very coolest people were chosen. It would be an honour to be approached by Cyndi, but on the other hand, it is still a testament to her reputation that these very trendy, up-and-coming producers enthusiastically gave her some excellent songs.

"Into the Nightlife" is a soaring, lung-expanding, breath of fresh air which we've had on repeat since we locked onto the album, however it's follow-up "Rocking Chair" is the one that's been stuck in our head. Possibly more so a Basement Jaxx song than a Cyndi one, it reeks of its producers, their signature marks being splashed all over the track like one splashing a substance all over someone else. The samba-like rap/chant in the bridge, the fast-paced Euro dance with more than a hint of island flavour, it's Basement Jaxx at their best with Cyndi's scratchy, tested vocals carrying it all. It's amazing, and we know you'll agree.

Stuck In Our Head: "Friday" - Rebecca Black

We rarely dabble in or indulge in internet 'memes' here at Shiny & New. Those things are over before they begin, the definition of 'funny for, like 5 seconds' and often mercilessly cruel. But finally we've found one we can not only endorse, but get on board with (only problem is, once we're on board, which seat should we take?).

Anyway, you may have seen this floating around the internets over the past couple of days. Rebecca is still trending on Twitter as we speak and parodies seem to have been spunked out faster than Friday comes around. But yeah. What actually is it? Does it even exist? Most people seem to be of the opinion that this, above, is the product of an ambitious but totally talentless (or is she a genius?) rich kid whose parents agreed to fund the project. Considering this is an unsigned teenager, this video and the song production is fairly (comparatively) not the shoddiest thing of all time. By this we mean, it wasn't filmed on a webcam in someone's dirty bedroom and recorded into a smartphone.

Some people think this is a spoof? (Really?) But whatever its origin, we have it indelibly stuck in our head. What's interesting (not really very interesting actually) about this is that Rebecca Black looks like a fairly conventionally pretty and ordinary girl. Usually when something like this goes 'viral', it's because the person involved either has learning disabilities, or is in some way considered to be grotesque or 'weird'. People love to mock the odd. But Rebecca seems totally mundane. So why has this skyrocketed to everyone's attention in a matter of days? Probably the song's profound lyrics (Sunday really does come afterwards when it's Saturday).

Oh who cares really, it's nearly friday: FUN FUN FUN FUN!

Stuck In Our Head: "The Shield and the Sword" - Clare Maguire

We were going to write something about how deeply disappointing Clare Maguire has turned out to be to us at some point, but we'll probably forget and anyhow, we don't see the point in needlessly slagging off an artist, especially one as hardworking and earnestly lovely as Clare.

Her album is a melting pot of sickly, dull, obvious MOR and AOR, the edge slightly taken off by some lovely (if predictable) swooping strings. The lyrics are heavy handed and allude so obviously to the breaking up of a relationship you start to think you're listening in on a very silly and long-winded therapy session. And Clare's voice, which has so much potential to be great, sounds too much like an (accurate but gratingly so) impression of various other singers (Antony, Lennox, Bush... even Florence) that it's impossible to get a full grasp on/of or love.

Having said all that there is one great track other than the already admired singles ("Ain't Nobody" and "The Last Dance"). "The Shield and the Sword" is Clare's trite shtick at its best: romantic, pounding, euphoric, slightly unusual with lyrics that don't do exactly what you expect. It's a welcome highlight in an otherwise schmaltzy wasteland. It's stuck in our heads.

Stuck In Our Head: "Sleeper In The Valley" - Laura Veirs

One of our founders plus our exclusive columnist travelled to north London to enjoy a Laura Veirs concert last night. Seriously, you guys, it was stunning. We have not felt so touched or tingly in a while. There'll be a concert review soon (hopefully) depending on whether or not someone else is kind enough to post their setlist or photos online (we couldn't take our own for various reasons).

In the meantime we've had this on repeat all day. It's always been our favourite track from Laura's latest album, July Flame. Tragically it wasn't included in the gig. We have much devastate etc. So here it is for you to enjoy.

In all seriousness, this may be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. Try not to be seduced. Try no to shed a beauty-tear. Try not to be moved, swayed, transported to a green glade of gently swirling rushes and cool, running water with trees whispering above. Try not to feel your heart stop at the stunningnosity of it all. We dare you.

Stuck In Our Head: "The Beast Within/Vogue/Nobody Knows Me" - Madonna

It's been a hectic day today. Exams, rushing around trying to sort lives out, selling bicycles, eating, eating and more eating. Between all of this, in a brief moment of a calm, we had the opportunity to listen to the opening of Madonna's triumph of a tour, Re-Invention, from 2004. If but nothing else one of the finest examples of how a pop concert should be staged, it combines a B-side from 1990 and one of the weaker songs from American Life, while slapping one of her biggest hits right in the middle. To incredible effect.

Seven years ago, American Life hadn't quite won everyone around to the extent that other records had. Personally, it's one of our favourites but we can acknowledge certain reasons why it isn't the first choice of many others. But for whatever reason, Madonna needed to re-enforce to the public why she's the fucking Queen, and so she toured. When she puts out an album which is hugely successful, the supporting tour's setlist is heavy on the album's material, naturally. The Drowned World Tour was a showcase almost exclusively for Ray of Light and Music, while Confessions was 70% Confessions on a Dance Floor. On the other hand, when an album isn't quite the roaring success it was expected to be, the tour seems to be erring more on the greatest hits side, which is fine with us. Just fine. The Re-Invention Tour was essentially a greatest hits tour, but when Madonna does a greatest hits tour, you shouldn't expect a Las Vegas-esque, feather boa, showgirl ridiculousfest (throwing shade at Kylie and Cher) - you're gonna be seeing the hits but remixed within an inch of their lives and sounding impossibly more incredible than they ever did on record.

We once read a review of the show which mentioned how the reviewer had regretted consuming a few alcoholic drinks prior, pointing to "The Beast Within" as a clue. Intoxicating enough to watch sober, a post-apocalyptic short film featuring elaborate Whore of Babylon-inspired costumes was paired with a remix of a remix of 1990's masterpiece, "Justify My Love", unfortunately leaving the sexy bits out and just using the Old Testament readings. The bass is positively hypnotic, and you can imagine just being completely enraptured standing in the arena, dizzy from the excitement and anticipation, paired with the visual and auditory stimulation. Not before long does Madonna herself raise on a platform from beneath the stage - one of the most simple but effective techniques out there, as what is more symbiotic with a performer than his or her stage? - to perform for the first time in eleven years, "Vogue".

As with every oldie he remixed, Stuart Price did a fantastic job. The house piano was enhanced, the drum beat was beefed up, but somehow it sounded sophistically stripped back from the original. Speaking to the fanboy inside of every hardcore fan, the performance itself was an enormous reference to possibly the greatest Madonna live performance of all time - the MTV Video Music Awards 1990, when she performed "Vogue" as Marie Antoinette. Following the theme of the musical arrangement, the dresses were stripped back to corsets and the coiffures were stripped back to ponytails, yet the atmosphere was magnificent. While the 2008 Sticky and Sweet Tour mix of the song was a fantastic performance in itself, this must be the greatest version she's done on a tour. The dancing was vogue-ing in 2004, the perfect mixture of elegance and power, while the dancers were suitably reverential in their interaction with Madge.

As the song ends, the army of dancers floats back into the stage and she is left on her own, performing one of the most introspective songs of her career. Incredibly interesting is how fantastic the song's live arrangement is, in respect to how flat it sounds on American Life. Price shoved a rocket of bass up it's bum, and the result is a magnificent display of strength and vulnerability. You want to punch the air when she does, storm down the length of the stage when she does, challenging her audience to contradict her.

Madonna never fails to create a magical entrance to her tour - the striptease of "Open Your Heart" on the Who's That Girl Tour sends shivers down the spine, while "Express Yourself" on Blond Ambition is about as iconic as it gets. "Erotica" on the Girlie Show was jaw dropping, while "Drowned World/Substitute for Love" on its namesake tour was a wonderfully serene entrance back to the stage after an eight year absence. Undeniable is the magnetism and gravitas of "Future Lovers" on the Confessions Tour however; it is unlikely that she will ever be able to top that. Using not a popular single but an album track nestled into the middle of the record, she appeared to float from the ceiling in a giant Swarovski disco ball to the stage. The stuff that dreams are made of? It was just today however that we realised how perfect the opening to Re-Invention was. The musical arrangements, choreography, visuals, costumes and atmosphere were in the most perfect proportions, and showed a forty six year old woman genuinely at the top of her game, showing women half her age how it was done.

Stuck In Our Head: "I Drove All Night" - Cyndi Lauper

Cyndi Lauper released her third album, A Night To Remember, in 1989, the same year that Madonna sealed her success and made her legacy a sure thing with her 4th record, Like a Prayer. Despite being Cyndi's highest charting album in the UK, it peaked at 37 in America and spelt the beginning of the end for her as a mainstream pop superstar. Listening to the album now, it sounds like an album of lost 80s hits, a cohesive and tirelessly melodic work that should've been more successful than it was. But when you take into account the fact that it was released right at the end of the 80s when the bouncy, upbeat cheesepop that had previously sold like scorching gateaux was rapidly going out of style and a new, darker, more rock-influenced sound was becoming popular, you can understand how it might have sounded unfresh.

"I Drove All Night" was the first single from it, and stands as her last big smash hit, going top ten in America and the UK. Unfortunately it's now better known as a Celine Dion or Roy Orbison song, but Cyndi's is by far our favourite. Over a restless synthesized cello riff Lauper purrs "I had to escape: the city was sticky and cruel". The song is essentially about a booty call, and the long, dull journey that precedes it, but Cyndi makes it sound as sensual and yearning as anything. It's a great song to wail along to, even if it, rather depressingly, represents the end of an era of success for an icon.